Prime time to win

Coral Springs, riding an 11-0 record, wants this to be the year to knock off Douglas.

December 6, 2007|BY GARY CURRERI SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Coral Springs senior Brooke McMann said this could be the year the Colts girls' soccer team makes some noise in the postseason.

At 11-0, the team is off to its best start in the school's 32-year history.

A good test for this team comes Friday at 5 p.m. when the Colts host Douglas, five-time defending state champion.

"We have girls on this team that have been looking forward to this game for four years," said McMann, a forward and one of the team's five seniors. "This is our year. This is our strongest team and we would love nothing more than to beat Douglas.

"Douglas has always been the top team and that gets in everybody's head a lot," said McMann, who is the team's leading scorer with 17 goals and 11 assists.

Barr also cited the play of junior defender Catalina Quintana and freshman goalkeeper Jenna Boersma, who has allowed only one goal all season, a penalty kick in a 6-1 victory over Coral Springs Charter.

"Anytime you find a way to win every game you have played, that is a nice way to start," said Barr, 46, a 1979 Coral Springs graduate who has been a cross country and track coach at the school in some capacity for 27 years. "We have played three or four quality teams and have found a way to win while we maintain working on getting our house in order."

Along with some young players, a new face on the team is Barr's assistant, Jerry O'Brien, a longtime youth travel soccer coach.

"He has been a big help," Barr said. "The soccer knowledge that he has imparted onto the girls has been a big help."

The Colts did not reach the state playoffs from 1996 until 2005, when they lost in the first round of the playoffs. Coral Springs lost the district final to Douglas last year 3-0 and lost in the first round of the playoffs to Cypress Bay 3-1.

"We knew that we had a lot of good freshmen coming in and I am surprised at how well we have done because it is hard to start with a new team," Quintana said. "We are getting along great and there is a lot of communication and everyone is really supportive of each other."

Emily Moseley, whose younger sister, Sarah, is a freshman on the team, said she wants to go out a winner. She said the Colts would have to get by Douglas and Cypress Bay to compete for a state title.

"It would be so big to knock [Douglas] off," Emily Moseley said. "I have wanted to do it all four years and if there was any year to do it, it would be this year."